An uplifting finale brings Lisey’s Story to a satisfying conclusion
The series finale wraps up a number of its loose ends while beautifully reflecting on the relationship at its core
TV Reviews Lisey
The series finale of Lisey’s Story begins with an Oscar Wilde quote: “A flower blossoms for its own joy.” Removed from its context, it can be read as a metaphor for Lisey’s journey and growth not being for anyone but herself, in spite of always being of use to those around her. The full quote is actually a letter from Wilde musing on the nature of art and its uselessness, regardless of the pleasure it gives us when creating a mood. I make note of this because it ties into the way I’ve watched Lisey’s Story, contemplating the impression it has left on me after each episode. Some people may argue that the series is unnecessary when the novel exists, but as the episode came to a close—once again flashing through moments of Lisey and Scott’s life together—I couldn’t help but find myself surprisingly moved by what Pablo Larraín and Stephen King had accomplished with this adaptation, finding it more rewarding of a watch than read.
Yes, the series has been every bit as indulgent as the novel, and not without some issues, but what changes King has made have been largely for the better. There is more pleasure to be found in the way Larraín has brought Lisey’s Story to life through gorgeous images than in sitting through lengthy passages that add little value. But enough about the series as a whole, let’s get back to the episode itself.
“Lisey’s Story” picks up right where “No Spark, No Light” left off, with its protagonist and antagonist circling one another within the Boo’ya Moon, the menacing call of the Long Boy just in the distance. For all my complaints about Dane DeHaan’s one-note incel performance in the series, it’s like the show knew making him insufferable would be the best way to make his demise land. And, boy oh boy, does it land. Once again the show gets playful with its fights and abuse, the hand-breaking, deep biting, shovel smashing, and drug needling all too entertaining for words. But where this part of the episode really shines is in finally giving us a money shot of the Long Boy.
My past complaint about the show not committing enough to something as grotesque and intriguing as Clive Barker’s Popolac and Podujevo from “In the Hills, The Cities” (from Books Of Blood: Volume 1) has been entirely remedied here, leaning hard into that exact design. As Maria Callas plays once again, the table has turned and it’s Dooley being tortured instead of Lisey. Larraín takes great pleasure in showing us Dooley’s suffering and it’s just delightful. The close-ups on the Long Boy’s features, of the human bodies that are crawling all over but held in place, are outright gorgeous. The way the camera lingers on them and emphasizes them instead of keeping the monster in the distance as the show has done in the past, giddily indulging in the destruction of Dooley’s body, is such a great way to end his arc (and his mangled body in the pool is just an added bonus).
Following this, the episode moves into denouement mode, wrapping up all its loose ends as casually as it introduced them. The bulk of the episode being dedicated to this is bound to be divisive, but it’s a pleasure to just sit with an experience once it’s over. A scene with Lisey and a cop, in which she more or less implies that Dooley has been taken care of, is its most unnecessary, contrasted by a much better instance involving Lisey and another (thankfully sane) fan of her husband’s, a reminder that she’ll never truly be free of his legacy. Further wrapping up comes in the form of a conversation between Lisey and Amanda about the shrouded ones—the bodies at the Boo’ya Moon who seem in limbo, including Scott—who are explained as dead individuals who stay and “hold on, at least for a little while.” And in an even subtler instance of growth, we get the same image of Lisey driving down the road, this time without slamming her head over and over into her window.
Upon returning to the Boo’ya Moon to finish her bool hunt, the prize being a manuscript by Scott titled “Lisey’s Story”, the audience and Lisey alike get the rest of Scott’s tale. Though we knew that Scott’s father had died, Larraín and King heartbreakingly guide us through Scott and his final hours together. Michael Pitt, once again, is an absolute standout in the series and in this episode, and every shot of him is as impacting as the last. It’s in his inability to kill himself, in the way he whispers, “I’m so sorry,” to his son, and in the way his son drags his corpse across the mud. Even the way it flashes through Scott’s trauma is effective, further emphasizing just how much weight he and his father carried during their lives.
As if to completely counter that energy though, the next montage is nothing short of uplifting. Once Lisey makes her way to the pool, saying goodbye to Scott as he moves on from the Boo’ya Moon, we’re taken through their beats of love. All these moments of joy that were peppered throughout Lisey’s Story are now here in one place. It feels like the creators were making a conscious effort to revisit much of what they’ve shown in the past and lending it new meaning in this episode. It’s not just in the beautiful flashes of Scott and Lisey’s life together (that, once again, feel totally Terrence Malick-adjacent and actively remind me of my favorite movie, To The Wonder), but in the way it expands on Lisey herself.
Where we once saw Lisey alone on a swing as a child, we now get a glimpse of her and her sisters as children. The Hollyhocks show on the water that was once so haunting is now something innocuous they played as kids, a simple but lovely moment that shows how close they’ve always been. It’s the kind of scene that some will take as frivolous, but there’s impact in the way it deepens the contrast between Lisey’s life and Scott’s tortured childhood. As we cut back to the present, with Lisey and her sisters walking away from where everything has happened, Lisey’s Story, or, at least, the version of Lisey’s story that Scott wrote out for her, is over now. We won’t know what’s to come next; neither did Scott and neither does Lisey, but, to quote Natasha Bedingfield, “The rest is still unwritten.”
Stray observations
- To close things out, a few more lines between my favorite set of sisters that I enjoyed, starting with Darla yelling at Amanda, “I liked you better when you were catatonic!”
- The girls casually arguing and joking, long after Dooley has been disposed of: “You lied about the gun.” “Yeah, I did. You want to get into that now?”
- “Scott was there for you, guiding you all along, wasn’t he?”
“He was.” This is such a simple line and I know a lot of people will take it as Scott always being the one to get Lisey out of situations, but I like to think of it more as though Scott was a guide for Lisey to embrace her own existence and agency. - Oh, and one more thing: “Stories were all I had, but now I have you. You’re every story. You’re my heart, kiddo. This is our time now. You and me. We should make our own world” was a really beautiful line and I think Owen’s delivery of so much dialogue in this series will not be as appreciated as it should be.
- Thanks for joining me throughout this entire limited series. I’m sure some folks didn’t enjoy it as much as I did, but I hope you got something out of reading along.
12 Comments
I did like this series quite a bit (I could say it’s the best filmed project King ever got involved with, but that’d be faint praise), if perhaps not entirely for the same reasons as you. For one, I though the Montage of Love was corny as hell. But I also deeply, fiercely dislike and dismiss as overlong perfume commercials everything Malik has done in this century, so.Here’s my stray observations.Lisey finds a manuscript titled “Lisey’s story”. Which contains Scott’s story.Lisey has Dooley dismembered by the Long Boy. She’s basically the queen of Boo’ya Moon now. She could be a superhero. Amanda: “Scott was guiding you all along, wasn’t he?” Oh sure, in case you forgot you’re insignificant without your husband! You couldn’t have done any of this without him! And he’s dead, imagine that!“Your husband meant so much to me, ma’am. I’m very sorry for your loss. But actually, it’s more like my loss, isn’t it? The world’s loss!”What is the Long Boy supposed to do with that shovel? Scratch the back of his finger-corpse?The Long Boy was sort of the undead version of Popolac and Podujevo.So is King advocating vigilantism, provided the assailant is insufferable enough to justify planning his violent murder in retaliation?Why was Lisey refusing to release Scott’s unpublished drafts again? I feel like we were never given a strong enough reason for that, and it would have avoided every trouble in the story, including a couple deaths.
I agree with you on most of your (excellent) points. I do have a few comments, though.1. Did you miss “Castle Rock”? A much better series, cinematically, for the storyline/plot, the acting, set design, creativity, Easter Eggs, and the enigmatic mystery of the “Angel”.2. The better question is WHY Jim Dooley/Dandy’s corpse briquettes came back at all. He should have remained in Boo’ya Moon like Paul.3. Lisey addressed and answered the question about not releasing Scott’s papers (including his unpublished works) early on. She said it was to keep their marriage private (“just for us”); a theme close to King’s own heart and part of the inspiration for the novel.
1. I watched the first season and I HATED it with the fire of a thousand suns. You can find my comments on that board, especially about the plot-holes-ridden finale. In general, it was a pedestrian, “for fans only”, novelty show, while Lisey’s Story was a very refined and ethereal work, both visually and (some gripes aside) content-wise.2. I thought about that, but I think his body was expelled from Boo’ya Moon, because he wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. It’s a mystical dimension, it’s not like it could function as a garbage dumpster for his visitors. See also why Scott couldn’t bury his brother there. And Scott’s corpse himself wasn’t there, only his “soul” lingered on for a while. Remember, Scott was a double, he never physically traveled to Boo’ya Moon like Lisey did.3. I remember now the line about keeping her marriage private, but it still doesn’t track as a compelling reason. Among the papers Scott left behind there were unfinished drafts for fiction work, which I think it’s what Dooley and the professor really wanted. She could have released all that (which Scott would have released himself as part of his job, if he didn’t die), while keeping the private correspondence for herself. We don’t even get the sense that there was a rich writter correpondence between Scott and Lisey, all the flashbacks had them living closely together, not having some epistolary romance. Plus, doesn’t she end up releasing the papers anyway, to some university or institute or some such? I read that final scene as she won’t be keeping them secret anymore.
i thought scott did bury his brother over there. he couldn’t take his father, however.
Yeah, I meant to write his father.
With the spectacular cast, the absolutely stunning production values espeically set design and Konji’s cinematography , Pablo Larraín’s elegant direction, it’s a shame this series is simply not being watched. Even Vulture is want for comments. But I really felt the padding. Obviously investment and length of programming is important to streaming services. But had this a film say with the same running time of 2:25 minutes (Dr. Sleep another King they would have had a solid film to release theatrically and conjointly as a streaming option. Obviously a passion project for King to be able to write the adaptation of his own work. But that may simply have been a best intentions misstep. Possibly it will be sought out over time, viewed by substantially more people and AV Club will revisit in some years down the road as a Watch This.Stranger shit has happened here.
Can someone who has read the book tell me what being a “double” means? Because the show never really explained that.And does the book explain why Scott’s brother got a weird zombie face when he went crazy?
Adaptations of King have always varied GREATLY and never been especially dependent upon the strength of the source material. This show reminds me of “Godless” a show that purported to be about a town full of women but was really just about men and kind of made it seem like the women weren’t up to much that was very important when the men weren’t around. In this one we fade in on a Lisey with no friends besides her sisters and no hobbies. At the end she is free to live her life but what that might consist of the show clearly has zero ideas. In between, the show I mean, is Scott’s Story.And the fucking thing was SO FUCKING SLOW.We never went back to the “you stole my story” thing Cole yelled, or why he wanted to kill Scott (his motivation sounded different than Dooley)…we certainly did not find out why the long boy exists or did not kill her at the end, it reminded me of the Rick and Morty bit: so T-Rex is one of the good guys now? Made no sense. Dooley was just a thinly written tic factory, his death was not as meaningful as, say, somebody being torn apart by the Cenobites.It just wasn’t a very good show. I did appreciate having a reviewer who enjoyed it, but that couldn’t sway me from all of the padding and thin characterizations. I hope Lisey gets a life, I think Tabitha King would have to be the one to come up with anything for her to do.
This show was … not good. Just a bunch of nonsensical gobbledy-gook. There were so many rules about this stupid fantasy world that were (i) barely explained and/or (ii) not adhered to in any event. Doubles? Faucets? Swimming pools? Good Ma? Bools? Sissy Baby Bunny or whatever the fuck? And all of this dumb hunt led to a story called Lisey’s Story that wasn’t about Lisey at all? Yeah cool. Makes sense.I don’t know. I hated it.
Dooley’s death was fitting for his cruelty, the red color theme (glowing out of grey) was beautiful, and the sisterly chemistry was off the charts. The hardest parts for me involved Pitt, but he sort of always does that to me. I really liked realizing the shrouded ones and their deal, and I think Moore and Owen made the love story real and surreally strange. I only wondered how their floors survived all those overflowing sinks.
i liked the book & i enjoyed the performances & the camera work here…but i can’t get over that lisey had no life outside of supporting scott. that is important but…really? no friends? no hobbies? nothing?
i’ve decided this is a perfectly good story…with the wrong title. trying to make lisey the main character of her life doesn’t work b/c she’s only a support for her successful husband. that can be an important, useful thing but her only use is helping him so it should be called “scott & lisey” or “how lisey saved scott” or “the power behind the man” or something.